Border Security Force - Organisation

Organisation

The Border Security Force has its Head Quarters at New Delhi and is known as Force Head Quarter (FHQ) headed by a Director General. Various Directorates like Operations, Communications & IT, Training, Engineering, General, Law, Provisioning, Administration, Personnel, Medical, Finance etc. function under the DG. Each Directorate is headed by an IG. The Eastern Theater is looked after by Spl DG HQ at Kolkata and the Western Theater is looked after by Spl DG HQ at Chandigarh.Field Formations in BSF are headed by an IG and are known as Frontiers Head Quarters (FtrHQ). There are 10 such Frontier under which Sector Head Quarters (SHQ) function headed by a DIG each. There are 31 such Sectors. Each SHQ has under its command 4–5 Duty Battalions. Presently 186 Battalions are sanctioned to BSF. Five major training institutions and 10 Subsidiary Training Centres (STCs) are imparting ab-initio as well as in-service training to its ranks and other CPOs/SPOs including IPS Probationers.

BSF is the only Indian paramilitary force to have its own Air Wing, Marine Wing and artillery regiments, which support the General Duty Battalions in their operations.

The BSF also has a national level school for breeding and training of dogs. Dogs from other CPOs and State Police are sent to National Training Centre for Dogs (NTCD) to be trained in infantry patrol, detection of explosives, tracking and the like.

The BSF maintains a Tear Smoke Unit (TSU), which is unique in India. The TSU is responsible for producing tear gas munitions required for the Anti-Riot Forces. It also exports a substantial quantity to other countries.

Two battalions of the BSF, located at Kolkata and Guwahati, are designated as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). Each battalion maintains 18 self-contained specialist search and rescue teams of 45 personnel each, including engineers, technicians, electricians, dog squads and medical/paramedics. The establishment of each battalion is 1,158 personnel. The NDRF is a multi-disciplinary, multi-skilled, high-tech force for all types of disasters and can deploy to disasters by air, sea and land. The battalions are equipped and trained for all natural disasters including combating nuclear disaster, biological and chemical disasters.